[JIMMYBO]

I have a Humax Foxsat HDR in which I installed a 1Tb drive.

Everything was running ok up to last night when I watched a recording

This morning, the Humax was in standby as usual after the 3am housekeeping but the display was lit

When I switched on my tv, there was an onscreen display from the Humax saying "HDD is not formatted. Formatting will start - YES"

I have 900GB of unwatched recordings on this drive, most of them in encrypted HD format.

Are there any suggestions as to how this might have occured during the overnight housekeeping and how I can retrieve these recordings?

Obviously I cannot now access the Humax via the web interface or Filezilla
The original formatted 320GB drive is attached in a caddy via USB

I've tried switching it off for 10 minutes as suggested in a previous forum thread but the same message appears on switching on again

I can't understand why it happened during the 3am housekeeping update

[grahamlthompson]

First thing I would do is remove and firmly replace the HDD data cable. You could also try connecting it to a PC with EXT2FS using the Caddy to check that all the partitions are readable. You could if the video folder is accessible copy the recording files for safe keeping. This will allow you to format the drive without losing the recordings.

[JIMMYBO]

Originally Posted by grahamlthompson

First thing I would do is remove and firmly replace the HDD data cable. You could also try connecting it to a PC with EXT2FS using the Caddy to check that all the partitions are readable. You could if the video folder is accessible copy the recording files for safe keeping. This will allow you to format the drive without losing the recordings.

Thanks - I'll give that a try

[REPASSAC]

Originally Posted by JIMMYBO

Thanks - I'll give that a try

If not try this remove the HD cable and SATA connector - Power-up - Press OK. You should see the channel appear. - Standby and power off - reconnect and keep fingers crossed.

[JIMMYBO]

Originally Posted by REPASSAC

If not try this remove the HD cable and SATA connector - Power-up - Press OK. You should see the channel appear. - Standby and power off - reconnect and keep fingers crossed.

That works (channel appears) until I reconnect and power up
It says 'No internal HD found'

I guess that means the drive is capput so it looks like a data salvage operation now

[grahamlthompson]

Originally Posted by JIMMYBO

That works (channel appears) until I reconnect and power up
It says 'No internal HD found'

I guess that means the drive is capput so it looks like a data salvage operation now

Assuming you didn't reformat the original drive you could stick it back in the box to check everythings else is still working.

[JIMMYBO]

This is as far as I've got and it's very strange
I stuck the original 320gb drive back in the box and it booted ok
BUT I can only see one 30 min recording in my media/video list. I had transferrred 20 files from the 1TB Humax drive over the last year and they were all visible and playable via usb
It's showing as 28% full but only one file is visible

I put the "faulty" 1TB drive into the caddy and connected via usb to the Humax. I can see all of the Media & File server folders ok (Twonky Samba but nothing else
Also the drive is showing as 0% full
These folders are accessible:
sda2 (1)
sda3 (0)
sda 4 (3 - Music (1)
Photo (0)
Opt (10)
So the drive can't be nackered. It just looks like there's nothing else on it?

It's almost as though the drive has been wiped at last night's housekeeping update

Update:
Ive connected the 1TB caddy to my W7 pc and it looks like the EXT3 formatting has disappeared on the Media partition
These are the Easus Partition Manager readings:
USED:
EXT 3 2.01GB
EXT 3 101.98 mb
OTHER 924.40 GB
EXT 3 246.54 mb

This must of happened at the 3am update
Is there any way of reformatting that partition to EXT 3 without wiping the data?

[logiciel]

Originally Posted by JIMMYBO

I have 900GB of unwatched recordings

[JIMMYBO]

Originally Posted by logiciel

Yea I know it seems a lot but they're complete series that I know I'll have time to watch one day and movies that I have seen before but not in HD

Unfortunately, they're nearly all recorded in encrypted HD hence the large file sizes

If they weren't encrypted I'd have backed them up to my pc long ago

[JIMMYBO]

I've now downloaded Easus Data recovery Wizard.

Unlike Easus Partition master, this does see the 900GB partition as EXT3
It started scanning and has picked up the first few files

The only problem is:
It'll take two days to scan the whole drive
The free version only allows for 1GB recovery
Will the recovered encrypted HD files (which most of them are) be playable on the Humax Foxsat box when I upload them after Easus has "copied" them?
If not, there's not much point

[grahamlthompson]

Presuming of course you didn't let the box format the drive.

If you boot the box without a hdd can you see all 20 recordings with the original drive in the caddy ?

Have you installed EXT2FS so you can read what's in the video folder of both EXT3 drives on a PC ?

Ext2Fsd Project » Downloads

Makes the drive usable in windows explorer like any other drive.

[grahamlthompson]

Originally Posted by JIMMYBO

Yea I know it seems a lot but they're complete series that I know I'll have time to watch one day and movies that I have seen before but not in HD

Unfortunately, they're nearly all recorded in encrypted HD hence the large file sizes

If they weren't encrypted I'd have backed them up to my pc long ago

Encrypted doesn't stop you backing them up, just means you can't play them.

[JIMMYBO]

I can see the 1TB drive in Ext2 Volume manager.

I rt click on the 900GB EXT3 partition - "change drive letter" - assign "J" to option 1 (mount by dos device) - done

"J" appears in Volume Manager next to 900GB partition

"J:\" appears in W7 64bit Explorer under Computer but when I try to open it it says the location is unavailable

[grahamlthompson]

Originally Posted by JIMMYBO

I can see the 1TB drive in Ext2 Volume manager.

I rt click on the 900GB EXT3 partition - "change drive letter" - assign "J" to option 1 (mount by dos device) - done

"J" appears in Volume Manager next to 900GB partition

"J:\" appears in W7 64bit Explorer under Computer but when I try to open it it says the location is unavailable

Not sounding good. Can you read the original 320GB drive using the PC ?

[JIMMYBO]

Well I think that the 1TB Samsung spinpoint is shot.

With a bit of rebooting and trial and error I've now managed to display all of the media files on the 320GB in W Explorer so I'll back them up before I replace it in the Humax

I've now managed to allocate a drive letter (and read files) via Ext2 Vol Manager in Explorer for three of the partitions on the 1TB but not on the 900GB media partition.
The Ext2 rt click menu shows an "Ext2 Management" option for the three partitions but it's not available for the Media partition so I'm allocating a drive letter manually, but it's inaccessible in W Explorer

Thanks for all the help but a lengthy and expensive Easus Data recovery Wizard session would seem my only chance of recovering the files
As they are mostly encrypted, I'm not sure if the rescued files would still play on the Humax when uploaded

[grahamlthompson]

Originally Posted by JIMMYBO

Thanks for all the help but a lengthy and expensive Easus Data recovery Wizard session would seem my only chance of recovering the files
As they are mostly encrypted, I'm not sure if the rescued files would still play on the Humax when uploaded

I don't think the encryption is an issue, all the recovery programme will attempt to do is recover a byte for byte copy of the original file. If it succeeds then the recovered file will be the same as the original. As far as the software is concerned it's just data (any errors will screw up an unencrypted recording just the same), you will of course need all three files recovering (.ts, .hmt and .nts).

If you manage to recover one less than 4GB you can try replaying it from a FAT USB stick.

[JIMMYBO]

Thanks for the help Graham

I might give it ago with Easus unless anyone knows of a free unlimited file size EXT3 recovery prog?

[JIMMYBO]

I ran Easus Data Recovery on the 1TB drive for 20 hours. It recognised 384 "identifiable" files, 39,000 FAT folder parts and found a total of 619,000 files totalling 410GB

From the file sizes, they're still there but they're appearing as to RAW files in the Easeus folder tree:
.G2 Gzip compressed files,
.HTM doc files,
.MOV file and
Shockwave Flash files .SWF

There are 212 Shockwave Flash .SWF files and looking at the file sizes, these must be the original .ts files

There are also 97 GZIP .G2 compressed files each exactly 47.68mb

I've extracted a few of these files to test but these file formats aren't usable

Can anyone suggest how they could all have changed format at the same time during the 3am Housekeeping update and what to try next?

[grahamlthompson]

Originally Posted by JIMMYBO

I ran Easus Data Recovery on the 1TB drive for 20 hours. It recognised 384 "identifiable" files, 39,000 FAT folder parts and found a total of 619,000 files totalling 410GB

From the file sizes, they're still there but they're appearing as to RAW files in the Easeus folder tree:
.G2 Gzip compressed files,
.HTM doc files,
.MOV file and
Shockwave Flash files .SWF

There are 212 Shockwave Flash .SWF files and looking at the file sizes, these must be the original .ts files

There are also 97 GZIP .G2 compressed files each exactly 47.68mb

I've extracted a few of these files to test but these file formats aren't usable

Can anyone suggest how they could all have changed format at the same time during the 3am Housekeeping update and what to try next?

Are any of the .swf files small enough to be SD recordings ?. If so what happens if you change the file extension to .TS and try opening with AV2HDR. Other than that pretty baffled, the folder should have matching sets of .ts. .hmt and .nts files. (No .hmt for 0.TS) Series recordings should be in their own sub folders.

http://foxsatdisk.***************/The+HDR+filesystem

[JIMMYBO]

Originally Posted by grahamlthompson

Are any of the .swf files small enough to be SD recordings ?. If so what happens if you change the file extension to .TS and try opening with AV2HDR. Other than that pretty baffled, the folder should have matching sets of .ts. .hmt and .nts files. (No .hmt for 0.TS) Series recordings should be in their own sub folders.

http://foxsatdisk.***************/The+HDR+filesystem

A glimmer of hope

I recovered a small .swf file, the one and only HTM file and one of the G2 GZIP compression files

As you suggested, I renamed the .swf to .ts and eureka - it opened in VLC
I've only got a 1GB allowance with the free EDR edition. I'll have to upgrade to Pro to get unlimited

I would be delighted with recovering the SD .ts files as I can put them on my Network drive and access them through my media players. I'm not really bothered about putting them back on the Humax drive but my big problem is that they're nearly all encrypted HD files

I can't do anything with the compressed G2 files yet though

I just get a "corrupted file" message in Winrar even after renaming them to .rar so I don't know what's in them.
They must be something to do with the series folders, although they're all axactly 47.68mb

God only knows where the .hmt and .nts files are

I've contacted Humax support as I'm positive the Housekeeping update at 3am Sunday caused this to happen, even if the drive had some bad sectors

If the HD files weren't encrypted, I could just recover all the .ts (.swf) files and load them onto my NAS drive or run them through AV2HDR and put them back on the box, a point that I shall be making to Humax

[grahamlthompson]

Originally Posted by JIMMYBO

If the HD files weren't encrypted, I could just recover all the .ts (.swf) files and load them onto my NAS drive or run them through AV2HDR and put them back on the box, a point that I shall be making to Humax

Pleased to hear you have at least progressed a bit. As to the encryption that's not down to Humax, it's down to Freesat DRM paranoia. Any maker of Freesat-pvrs have to conform to the spec which provides for the broadcaster to enforce encryption and restrict numbers of copies.

It's a shame that AV2HDR can't recreate working .nts and .hmt files for encrypted files, that would at least allow you to replay the recordings on your Foxsat. If Raydon reads this would be interested in his comments on the feasiblity of this

[JIMMYBO]

I've just realised that Humax changed from GMT to BST during their housekeeping boot at 3am on Sunday 1st April EXACTLY when all of my 900GB of files were "lost"

No wonder they've asked me to send them full details!

I've also noticed other problems (with Channel Editor Plug-in etc.) have been posted on this forum as occuring at the same time

It's got to be too much of a coincidence!

I don't think that Humax chose a "fool" proof day to switch timezone - or maybe it was chosen by a third party, in view of the date!

[REPASSAC]

Originally Posted by JIMMYBO

I've just realised that Humax changed from GMT to BST during their housekeeping boot at 3am on Sunday 1st April EXACTLY when all of my 900GB of files were "lost"

No wonder they've asked me to send them full details!

I've also noticed other problems (with Channel Editor Plug-in etc.) have been posted on this forum as occuring at the same time

It's got to be too much of a coincidence!

I don't think that Humax chose a "fool" proof day to switch timezone - or maybe it was chosen by a third party, in view of the date!

While Humax have changed the way they handle time on the HDR twice. The error in changing to BST a week late is down to a bug in what I think are open source libraries . My ADSL box sufferered with the same bug until I rebooted it on Sunday.

[JIMMYBO]

Here’s an update on my quest to recover the lost files. It may be of use to others in the event of the same calamity happening to them

After the first scan by Easeus Data Recovery that resulted in the unusable folder directory tree (see #18), I contacted Easeus tech support.
They have been excellent with their prompt and helpful replies

I adjusted the settings in the EDR Options menu to their instructions and carried out another 20 hour search which this time resulted in an EXT3 folder with hundreds of Inode sub folders and an “excellent” rated chance of recovery.

I then “searched” for .ts .hmt and .nts files in the directory folders and all of the file titles (three per recording) were visible as recoverable. The partition showed as 934GB used which was the correct size.

However, many of the .ts files and a few of the others showed as “deleted” and nearly all of the files showed as 0KB content. Some displayed up to 500kb content but only a few registered the correct 2GB – 6GB.

What’s really baffling is that most of the 0KB content files show an identical “modified” “created” and “last access” date of 1970-1-1 0:0:0
In view of the fact that all of my files were corrupted or deleted at 3am on Sunday April 1st, coincidental with the 1hr BST Housekeeping update, I find this very suspicious that it might have been caused be either the software update or a virus getting on to the drive somehow

I sent Easeus tech support a screenshot of the recoverable files but they couldn’t offer any more options and suggested I send the disk to a pro Data Recovery company

So with nothing to lose I decided to test the disk.
This is a Samsung HD1035J Spinpoint F3 7200rpm 32mb cache SATA II 1TB drive and is still under Seagate 2 year warranty.
However, to submit a claim I first had to download and run Sea Tools for Windows to confirm a failed disc and obtain a ref number for return.
I ran a “Long Generic/Repair All” test that took 7 hours to complete.
To my amazement, the disk “passed” the test. There were 550 errors and 7 Bad LBA which were all repaired.
So I can’t claim for a failed disk

Just to make sure I ran yet another 20 hour Easeus Data Recovery scan of the disk but this only resulted in a very similar result.

I’ve never experienced a disk failure like this before, and I wonder if anyone else has? I’ve now lost all the data but could accept this if it was just the drive that caused the problem

I also don’t know now whether to take a chance and reformat this disk and reinstall it in the Humax or just use it as an external backup drive and purchase another.

Now on to the 320GB drive.
This was the Humax pre-installed one that I had been running in an external caddy without problems for more than a year.

There were 100GB of recordings on this that were visible and playable via USB up to my reinstalling it in the Humax box to replace the above mentioned 1TB drive.
This drive has now worked ok for the last week with new recordings.
However, I can still only see one of the original recordings onscreen as available for playback but the drive still shows as 34% full

So I reinstalled Raydon’s Media & File Server bundle and immediately. all of the recordings are visible and the SD ones playable in VLC, via W Explorer.
This would be ok if most of them weren’t HD encrypted. I can also access and edit all of them from the web interface

Using Filezilla, I then copied one of the SD recordings (.ts .hmt .nts) from the Humax to my pc and deleted the files on the 320GB drive. The “Usage” monitor on the 320GB decreased by the correct amount, so it was deleted.
I then copied them from my pc back to the Humax drive but it still wasn’t visible on the Humax

I now accessed the .ts file via Filezilla and ran it through AV2hdr. I deleted the three files on the Humax and replaced them with the three newly created by AV2hdr. Eureka! This recording is now visible and playable directly on the box. This leads me to believe that somehow, the .nts and/or hmt files had become corrupt.
I still can’t play the HD encrypted files though as these can’t be “corrected” by AV2hdr
And I still can’t understand why the Humax box can’t read these files when it appears that there’s nothing wrong with them

I’m sending a copy of this to Humax to demonstrate to them that the encryption on their pvr’s for HD transmitted programmes, whether a UK legal requirement or not, is in many genuine cases, preventing customers from accessing and viewing their own recordings.

I think that Humax should appeal to the EU for a common sense ruling, as does exist in other countries. Humax HDRs aren’t infallible (neither are the disks in them) and in the event of a major catastrophe, thanks to the third party software freely available because of efforts made by many of this forum’s members, without the encryption “all would not be not lost”.

[JIMMYBO]

I've just managed to get all of the missing recordings on my re-installed 320GB original drive to show on the Humax box

As Humax software had updated overnight to v1.00.20 I reinstalled the Media & FS Bundle with the v4.07 update and it gave me an idea

The "missing" titles were still only showing via Filezilla, W Explorer and the Web Interface, not on the Humax box

So I opened the "Browse Media Files window" on the Web interface, and one by one selected all of the recordings that weren't appearing on the Humax EPG.
I then accessed opt+ - Rename - Update without changing the names for each title.

I couldn't believe it. All of the recordings, including the encrypted HD ones, re-appeared on my Humax Media menu and they're all playable

So another big thanks to Raydon and all of you guys for the "unofficial" software that has solved a major problem for me and found another invaluable use.

I'll be updating Humax tech support with this as they have been very quick with their responses to my e-mails

It may help them resolve similar faults on other customer's boxes

If only I could boot up the 1TB drive, I think this bit of "magic" might work on that

[REPASSAC]

Originally Posted by JIMMYBO

.............................
So I opened the "Browse Media Files window" on the Web interface, and one by one selected all of the recordings that weren't appearing on the Humax EPG.
I then accessed opt+ - Rename - Update without changing the names for each title.

I couldn't believe it. All of the recordings, including the encrypted HD ones, re-appeared on my Humax Media menu and they're all playable
.........................

The exact path to the .ts must appear in the .hmt or the Foxsat will not display the programme. The rename automatically inserts the correct path.

[JIMMYBO]

Originally Posted by REPASSAC

The exact path to the .ts must appear in the .hmt or the Foxsat will not display the programme. The rename automatically inserts the correct path.

I just selected the Rename/Update without actually altering the name title at all

But how can the path to all of the recordings suddenly get lost because this is what may have happened to the 924GB of recordings on my 1TB drive that I still can't recover?

[REPASSAC]

Originally Posted by JIMMYBO

I just selected the Rename/Update without actually altering the name title at all

But how can the path to all of the recordings suddenly get lost because this is what may have happened to the 924GB of recordings on my 1TB drive that I still can't recover?

Yes it is not necessary to change the name the code is still executed and the correct path added. The FULL path is in the HMT and I can't remember but the device might be part of the path.

My guess was your 1tb had a damaged partition table and was not identified as EXT3.

[JIMMYBO]

Originally Posted by REPASSAC

Yes it is not necessary to change the name the code is still executed and the correct path added. The FULL path is in the HMT and I can't remember but the device might be part of the path.

My guess was your 1tb had a damaged partition table and was not identified as EXT3.

Can you suggest anything to try that might repair the partition table without losing all the data?

I've got nothing to lose now as it looks like I'll have to reformat the disk anyway.

[REPASSAC]

Originally Posted by JIMMYBO

Can you suggest anything to try that might repair the partition table without losing all the data?

I've got nothing to lose now as it looks like I'll have to reformat the disk anyway.

Some form of Partition editor - I would try just telling it that it is a EXT3 partition (I can't remember what the code is - If you search for threads on setting up > 1tb disks on the Foxsat you should find it there.